Fenton Excursion
Submitted: Thursday, Jun 25, 2009 at 23:49
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Member - Doug T (NT)
Noel K and myself will be going a little weekend camping trip this weekend, We are going to
camp at the WWII Fenton
Airstrip Saturday night, on Sunday we will try and access the
crash site of the USAAF B-24 Bomber , S/N 42-40509 named "Nothing Sacred" that crashed approximately 4.8km northwest of Fenton Airfield on 21/9/1943, It came out of the Consolidated-San Diego Factory on 13th March 1943 so it didn't last long, what I would like to know is...has anyone been to the site and where's the best access,
.
Reply By: Member - Mal and Di (SA) - Sunday, Jun 28, 2009 at 19:19
Sunday, Jun 28, 2009 at 19:19
Doug I know this is not the one you were looking for but maybe an interesting trip another weekend.
The details come from a Geocache site and are courtesy of NTSTROM.
This cache is for the more adventurous cachers. It is located in a remote part of the
Shoal Bay Coastal Reserve. To reach the cache the use of a 4WD is required. The cache is located about 3.7 km from Gunn Point Rd, as the crow flys, however the 4WD track into the site is about 7.8 km long. The track will take you directly to the site. I would not recommend walking into the site unless you are an experienced bush walker/hiker. Difficulties with access may be experienced during the wet season.
On the 13th of June 1942, at about 12:00 pm, the RAAF RDF station at Dripstone detected a large Japanese airborne formation of 27 bombers and 45 Zero fighter escorts. The formation was approaching Melville Island from the northwest.
A USAAF standing patrol consisting of 8 P40E Kittyhawks reached the Japanese formation as it was overhead RAAF
Darwin. The Zeros, who outnumbered the Kittyhawks, engaged the patol.
As a result of the encounter one of the Kittyhawks, piloted by 2nd LT Pierre
Alford, was shot down by a Zero over Gunn Point.
Alford succesfully bailed out and landed near Gunn Point while his aircraft crashed at the cache location.
The wreckage of the Kittyhawk aircraft still remains today at this virtually unknown and unmarked location.
You can find more detail including access tracks by going to the following link
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC14C6D.
Best of luck.
M.
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